by Paul Mitchell an essay from the Tate Gallery Wright of Derby exhibition catalogue, 1990, to celebrate the opening of the National Gallery exhibition, Wright of Derby: from the shadows, 7 November 2025-10 May 2026 Introduction Framemaking was a flourishing trade during Wright's lifetime. Artists and their patrons, as well as ornamentalists, decorators and architects, were all to some degree involved in the commissioning, design and purchase of picture frames.

This article was first published by the V&A. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, cultural institutions around the world have become more aware of the long-standing attempts at erasure and appr...

The Frame Blog now has a new section (accessible, like the Archives, Contributors, etc., from the header, above), which contains drawings and designs for frames, organized by nationality within century. These are taken mainly from the drawings departments of large museums and similar institutions; occasionally from commercial galleries and auction houses; and each drawing is linked back to its source. As well as designs for altarpieces and moveable frames, the subjects include wall elevations containing frames, some designs for engravings of frames or book frontispieces and illustrations where these seem significant, and drawings of details of ornaments or profiles.

DRAWINGS and DESIGNS for FRAMES This section of The Frame Blog is intended to collect together from various sources – museums and elsewhere – as many as possible designs and drawings of…

A sale to be held by Sotheby's, London, on 17 & 18 September 2025 Pauline Karpidas assembled an extraordinary collection of 20th-21st century paintings, sculpture and furniture, some of it commissioned directly from the artists or their agents. The house she shared with her husband, until his death, was an organized riot of pictures, pattern and colour, where no object seemed commonplace or mundane, and every individually extravagant piece fell into obedient relationship with the rest.

Following the successful virtual conference organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario in September 2024, with its fascinating and wide-ranging collection of papers, it is very satisfying to be able t…

Following the successful virtual conference organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario in September 2024, with its fascinating and wide-ranging collection of papers, it is very satisfying to be able to report the advent of two more conferences, in November this year and in February 2026. They are being held in geographically widely separated locations, as well - in Russia and Tasmania respectively - adding to the sense that frames (their history, manufacture and ornament) are becoming ever more recognized as an important element of study, both for the fine and decorative arts.

As a freelance wood sculptor, Bernhard Lankers works in all areas of historical reconstruction and conservation, with a focus on interior decorative schemes and carved wooden frames. He has worked …

A shorter version of this article was first published in The Pre-Raphaelite Society Review, 30th anniversary edition, vol. XXVI, no 3, autumn 2018 When we consider the revolutionary impact which the very young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood must have had on contemporary academic art (the landscapes painted en plein air in brilliant greens[1], the lack of idealization of the human figure, the direct engagement with social problems, literary subjects depicted realistically, rather than romantically), there's an additional aspect of their work which has often been neglected - the idea of the work of art as a whole object completed by its frame.

by Katie White This article was first published on Artnet (News) on 3 April 2025, and is republished here with the permission of the author. For a century, the frame was meant to disappear. Today, it’s a site of rebellion, narrative, and physical presence. Years ago, the artist Harry Gould Harvey IV came across a fallen black walnut tree in a friend’s yard.